Implementing a service catalog might seem to be a daunting task and not worth the time and effort. But before dismissing it as unachievable or unworthy, you should consider how a service catalog can improve your ability to deliver effective IT services for your business.
Developing a service catalog affords real benefits for both IT and business users. A basic service catalog is not difficult to develop and the information derived from the development process is invaluable.
To understand its importance, let's take a look at what a service catalog is and does, how it's used, and what is involved in building one.
Service Catalog Definition
The service catalog is a component of the ITIL v3 Service Design lifecycle phase, and a subset of the service portfolio. According to ITIL, the service catalog "consists of active and approved services... divides services into components... contains policies, guidelines, responsibilities, as well as prices [costs], service level agreements, and delivery conditions."1As mentioned, the service catalog is a subset of the service portfolio, which is a component of the ITIL v3 Service Strategy lifecycle phase. The other two service portfolio subsets are the service pipeline (services under consideration or in development), and retired services (phased out or withdrawn services).
The service catalog is the subset of the service portfolio that business users see. Specifically, users see the business view of the service catalog. This view shows the details of the supplied services in terms understood by the business users.
The service catalog also includes a technical view that shows the relationship of the business services to the supporting technical services and components. The technical view is not visible to the business users.
I recommend IT organizations first develop just the service catalog. As your service management capabilities mature, you could add the service pipeline and retired service subsets as part of the Service Strategy and Service Transition lifecycle phases.
Using a Service Catalog
The service catalog is the gateway to IT service management. Its main purpose is to describe the services offered by IT to support the business processes.Business users access the service catalog to determine the services available to them. Therefore, it's important for the service catalog to be accessible by all authorized users.
IT uses the service catalog to communicate service availability to business users and set service level and support expectations. IT also uses the service catalog to define the relationship between a business service and the underlying technology that supports it. This is critical for determining the impact of incidents, problems and changes on the services infrastructure.
Building Your Service Catalog
So, how do you build a service catalog for your organization? Let's examine what you should and should not do when developing a service catalog.The first step is to define the process for developing and updating your service catalog. It may be tempting to start by buying a tool, but that should not be your first move.
Define your strategy and develop a plan for structuring your service catalog to fit your organization's culture and capability maturity. Most importantly, get an executive sponsor outside of IT to champion the effort.
Closely examine the services IT provides and identify who uses them. A good source for this information is your business users. This discovery process may prove to be very enlightening.
Decide on what information is important to include in the service catalog. This can vary from one organization to the next and may include the following:
- Service name or title
- Service description
- Service availability days/times
- Service levels or expectations
- Cost or price
- How to order the service
- Departments that use the service
- Business manager responsible for service definition
- IT services and components used to deliver the service
- IT group responsible for supporting the service
It may not be apparent, but service catalogs are dynamic. The major concept of ITIL v3 is continual service improvement, and this means changes to how you deliver services. You will need some level of automation to help keep your service catalog accurate.
When you get to the point of choosing a tool, select one that will provide the best overall benefit. Do not use a text document or spreadsheet. They are inadequate for defining relationships and are difficult to keep accurate.
ITIL v3 recommends a database approach for organizing service catalogs. A database makes it easy to define different views of the catalog and generate reports.
Your initial service catalog should be simple and straight forward. Give your users a chance to get familiar with the service catalog. This is as much a cultural change as it is a technical one.
Plan on making several small enhancements to the service catalog based on user feedback. After all, the service catalog is a communication tool between IT and the business users. It will only be of value if the business users understand how to use it and why.
Conclusion
If you haven't started on your service catalog yet, hopefully I helped you understand the importance of developing one. The information you discover while developing the service catalog is often as valuable as the finished product.By implementing a well-defined service catalog, business users and IT will have a better understanding of how IT supports business objectives. The service catalog ties your IT services to your business processes, and helps align IT with the business. You really do need a service catalog!
1itSMF International. IT Service Management Based on ITIL V3 - A Pocket Guide, Van Haren Publishing. ISBN 978-90-8753-102-7.
By Harry Hiles, HBH Technology LLC — 30 Oct 2008
An Introductory Overview of ITIL V3
